Florence Lands, Inches Inland Near Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina

14/09/2018

Hurricane Florence continued to batter North Carolina’s coast Friday afternoon with life-threatening flooding and damaging winds after making landfall at sunrise near Wrightsville Beach in the southeastern part of the state.

“The run rose this morning on an extremely dangerous situation, and it’s getting worse,” said North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper. “The storm is going to continue its violent grind across our state for days and be a major inland event as well.”

The National Hurricane Center said Florence is now moving slowly inland in southeastern North Carolina with sustained winds of 120 kilometers per hour and higher gusts. The storm is expected to continue on that path and begin lashing eastern South Carolina Friday night and Saturday. “Significant weakening is expected over the weekend and into early next week while Florence moves farther inland,” the center said Friday afternoon.

Florence had been downgraded to a Category One hurricane before landfall, but forecasters say it is still capable of delivering a lethal punch.

Officials said some half-million people were without electricity in North Carolina Friday morning and Duke Energy warned that up to 3 million customers could lose power over the next few days.

Ray Alexander of the Army Corps of Engineers said Friday “temporary power is probably job number one we anticipate.” He said, “specialized power planning response teams” are positioned in the Carolinas and in Virginia.

SOS calls

In Craven County, NC, authorities say they received more than 150 telephone calls to rescue people in the historic town of New Bern because water had entered their homes. Before sunrise, about 200 people had been rescued.

New Bern resident Latasha Jones is one of the more fortunate ones. “The evacuation was county wide but since we’re not in a flood zone, we weren’t really worried about that,” she told VOA. We were worried about the hurricane, had it continued to be as strong as what they were originally stating.”

Regarding the possibility of a storm surge, Jones said “everyone has to be on the lookout for that, however, the way our house sits, it’s elevated. We have steps on the sides of the house so it’s a few feet off the ground anyway. And since we’re already on high ground, those two things together kind of help insulate us a little more than, I would say, others.”

Officials have assured them they will be rescued by FEMA teams who are ready to do swift water rescue. Authorities have advised people, however, to move to higher levels in their homes while they wait to be rescued.

The outer bands of Hurricane Florence began battering the coast of North and South Carolina Thursday with strong winds and rain.

The National Hurricane Center said late Thursday that Florence had already brought a life-threatening storm surge and hurricane-force winds to the North Carolina coast.

The center said the threat of freshwater flooding will increase over the next several days.

Slow mover

The storm’s movement, not its strength, has forecasters and officials worried.

Florence is moving inland at 5 kilometers per hour — giving it more time to churn, suck up water, batter the coast, and bring massive amounts of rain inland.

Chris Wamsley of the National Weather Service said the storm surge of seawater along the coasts of the Carolinas “will continue into Saturday and in some areas Sunday night into Monday morning.”Wamsley stressed the harsh weather conditions are “only the beginning, citing the fact that “Florence is a very slow mover.”

The hurricane center predicts as much as 101 centimeters of rain for some parts of North Carolina and storm surges as high as 4 meters — taller than many houses.

Tornadoes are also possible. The Weather Channel is reporting that tornado warnings were in effect further north for Virginia Beach, Virginia.

US military rescue effort

The Pentagon has dispatched two ships and a Marine unit offshore to provide help if needed. It has also moved most ships, submarines, and planes from their base at Hampton Roads, Virginia to safety far at sea or in distant airbases.

Rescue helicopters and trucks that can navigate floodwaters are also standing by.

The Department of Health and Human Services has deployed more than 500 personnel “who are currently working in medical centers around the region,” according to Dr. Bob Kadlec, the agency’s assistant director for preparedness.

More than 1.7 million people in the Carolinas and Virginia were warned to evacuate, but it is not clear how many left. Officials say anyone who has not heeded mandatory evacuation orders is on his or her own.

“The idea of having to leave with my two cats and go somewhere for a week or more…once you leave, you don’t know how many days it will be before you can return,” a Wilmington resident named Kate told VOA.

Another Wilmington resident said she did not want to leave because she was afraid to see what she would come back to after the storm.

The police chief of Wrightsville Beach suggested that those who decided to stay give him their next-of-kin contact information.

White House priority

President Donald Trump has said protecting lives is his “absolute highest priority” and that the White House is standing by to offer affected states whatever help they request. On Friday, he applauded the efforts of emergency responders on Twitter.

Florence is forecast to significantly weaken as it crawls across central South Carolina Saturday; however, residents inland have been warned to expect life-threatening floods and to be without power for days.

Parts of the mid-Atlantic can also expect heavy rains from what is left of Florence well into next week. …